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September 15 2013

10:55 PM

Bubba Watson switched to the new PING S55 irons at the BMW Championship.

By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider

Bubba Watson has added PING's latest woods, wedges and putters to the bag over the years, but when it comes to his irons, the former Masters winner has been loyal to the same iron model, S59, since 2004.

In fact, since Watson started playing S59, PING has released four new versions of the S line.

The comfort level Watson had with S59, coupled with the ability to work the ball both ways and hit it high or low, made it nearly impossible to get the irons out of his bag.

But that finally changed at the BMW Championship. Watson brought S55, PING's latest iron, to Conway Farms to have PING TOUR reps check lofts and lies. Following the checkup, Watson took them on the course and decided to put them in play for the very first time.

According to PING TOUR rep Christian Pena, Watson said the irons were workable, and were flying farther and longer than his previous set.

While Watson was the biggest name to switch at the BMW Championship, he wasn't the only player to transition into S55. Michael Thompson and Daniel Summerhays also put the new irons in play, making it the most played PING iron at the tournament.

TaylorMade TOUR reps also installed two 10-gram weights in the sole to help achieve the swingweight and feel he wanted. Gay tested the putter and liked the performance and design so much that he immediately put it in the bag.

New Graphite Design shaft: Graphite Design's latest shaft model, Tour AD-MT, was spotted at the BMW Championship. The shaft has an electric-yellow-and-white color scheme and has a similar profile to AD-DI and AD-BB — two tip-stiff Graphite Design shafts that are currently being used by Adam Scott, Jonas Blixt and Ryo Ishikawa. The shaft is expected to be available in mid-November.

Divots: Justin Rose had TaylorMade TOUR reps length his Spider Blade putter one-half inch. The U.S. Open champion has been standing more upright with his new putter — Rose had the putter lengthened from 34 inches to 37 inches at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance— and felt like he could use some additional length.